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Introduction to African-American Literature: (Citified: Urban Space and Racial Identity) cancelled

ENGL 081.401
instructor(s):
TR 10:30-12:00pm

This course, subtitled "Citified: Urban Space and Racial Identity," is an introduction to African American Literature. It is an examination of the experience of the city in African American literature.  In exploring the ways in which African American writers have imagined and represented urban space, urban life, and urban identity over time and in particular historical moments, we will consider issues (such as class structure, family organization, gender roles, redline segregation, economic conditions, political climate, social milieu) that have contributed both to the production of the texts and to the cultural and racial work they perform.   TEXTS: Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), Dutchman and The Slave: Two Plays (1964); Gwendolyn Brooks, Maud Martha (1953); Charles Chesnutt, The Marrow of Tradition (1901); Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun (1959); Langston Hughes, Montage of A Dream Deferred (1951); Walter Mosley, Devil in a Blue Dress (1990); Gloria Naylor, The Women of Brewster Place: A Novel in Seven Stories (1980); Ann Petry, The Street (1946); John Edgar Wideman, Philadelphia Fire (1990). REQUIREMENTS: a short response essay; an essay-type midterm examination; and a final essay.

fulfills requirements
Sector 2: Difference and Diaspora of the Standard Major
Sector 6: 20th Century Literature of the Standard Major
Cultural Diversity in the US of the College's General Education Curriculum